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"This text is mainly the spelling out of what felt to me like a physical experience of spirit. It has, as point of departure and reference, the pioneering steps taken by Walt Disney along the path of joining technology to different entertainment medium. Several aspects of American pop culture and American life are approached viewed by the common denominator of interaction and fiction, insofar as intrinsic to technology. The topics are written in a confessional as well as reflection-oriented style, so that the element of particularity and passion is deliberately preserved, along with objective questioning."Friday, September 28, 2007
My new book: From Mars to Marceline
"This text is mainly the spelling out of what felt to me like a physical experience of spirit. It has, as point of departure and reference, the pioneering steps taken by Walt Disney along the path of joining technology to different entertainment medium. Several aspects of American pop culture and American life are approached viewed by the common denominator of interaction and fiction, insofar as intrinsic to technology. The topics are written in a confessional as well as reflection-oriented style, so that the element of particularity and passion is deliberately preserved, along with objective questioning."
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Disney Nationality
Disney Nationality
Disney gave me an identity, something, really, of a nationality. Even though I've been in this country for 15 years as an American citizen (I am married to an American and have kids) I am still formed by another culture, I have an accent, English is and will always be no more than a second language ( Even French is somewhat more familiar to me, I learned it before I learned English) and by now I am neither a Brazilian nor an American. But having loved Disney since childhood, having grown up with the classical Disney movies, I, of course, was also formed by such American folklore, fantasy and art. Disney is one of the foundations of the collective psyche, in this sense. It is like an island on its own, or a bridge between the US and all the countries it influences. It is the US and it is also, for those who grew up with it, (regardless of chronology) their own metaphorical country: their childhood. It is a root.
After a growing rediscovery of what Disney (Walt and his creativity) was and has always been to me, I do not feel in a limbo anymore. Locating my real or more important roots was enormously reassuring. It allows me to say that I am neither Brazilian nor American, I am Disneyan.
I bet the same happens to other people "in between" cultures, like myself. Perhaps, on this account, the UN should give Disney a symbolic granting of its own citizenship. Wouldn't that be fun, and also "serious", serious in the real Walt Disney's kind of way, that is, meaningful?
Yes, because Walt Disney blended seriousness with entertainment. Not just in what he did, but his own person seems to have been this incredible union of polarities.
Disney gave me an identity, something, really, of a nationality. Even though I've been in this country for 15 years as an American citizen (I am married to an American and have kids) I am still formed by another culture, I have an accent, English is and will always be no more than a second language ( Even French is somewhat more familiar to me, I learned it before I learned English) and by now I am neither a Brazilian nor an American. But having loved Disney since childhood, having grown up with the classical Disney movies, I, of course, was also formed by such American folklore, fantasy and art. Disney is one of the foundations of the collective psyche, in this sense. It is like an island on its own, or a bridge between the US and all the countries it influences. It is the US and it is also, for those who grew up with it, (regardless of chronology) their own metaphorical country: their childhood. It is a root.
After a growing rediscovery of what Disney (Walt and his creativity) was and has always been to me, I do not feel in a limbo anymore. Locating my real or more important roots was enormously reassuring. It allows me to say that I am neither Brazilian nor American, I am Disneyan.
I bet the same happens to other people "in between" cultures, like myself. Perhaps, on this account, the UN should give Disney a symbolic granting of its own citizenship. Wouldn't that be fun, and also "serious", serious in the real Walt Disney's kind of way, that is, meaningful?
Yes, because Walt Disney blended seriousness with entertainment. Not just in what he did, but his own person seems to have been this incredible union of polarities.
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